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If you are competing in a GRC that requires English, there is no need to worry about this question. You must speak in English.
Other competitions may allow you to choose. There are different rationales for making your decision. One may be whether the GRC judges are fluent in the language in which you want to present.
Another rationale could be that it will be easier to give a presentation in the language in which you conduct your research. Dirk Lauinger, a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying energy storage shared: ”All my research is done in English. So, it’s easier for me to talk about my research in English.”
A third rationale might be considering how the choice of language guides the structure of your message. Because languages do not translate word-for-word, designing the talk in your native language will differ from how you design it in your second or third language.
The prevailing rationale that I heard from interviewees who were given a choice was that they decided to compete in English because they also could share the competition video with a broader audience, including potential employers, collaborators, friends, and family.
Make the choice that aligns with your goals.
The purpose of your GRC talk title is to signal what content you will be sharing while having enough meaning to attract interest, but not reveal the punchline. The title of your talk should be intriguing but not cryptic. It should be concise but convey impact (try for 4–9 words). It should be clear, free of jargon, and easy to comprehend in the few seconds the audience has to read it. The good news is that there is not one magical title.
The following examples will help you evaluate what is effective (or not) and give you ideas for how to approach assigning a title to your own talk. Keep in mind that even though I critique many of these titles as less than optimal, the speakers all performed well in their GRCs.
Examples of titles that have too much jargon:
In the following examples of actual GRC talk titles, I have underlined the language that is jargon for me. By using words in the title with which I am unfamiliar, I am unsure what the talk will be about, so I am less interested in learning more.
Examples of titles that are too long:
Obviously, the criterion of “too long” is subjective. My personal indicator that a title is too long is that I have to stop and take a breath while reading or saying it. The following titles of actual GRC talk titles range from using 19 to 22 words.
Curious about the ideal word count for a GRC talk title? In my opinion, a clear, easy-to-understand title should have between 4–10 words.
Examples of titles that are too simple, not enough contextual signals:
On one hand, the titles below from actual GRC talks are short and easy to read. However, on the other hand, these examples are actually too simple and do not have adequate contextual signals. The result is that they do not provide enough information to know what the talk will be about. Looking at the first example, is it about crime or new home-security technology? Or is it a play on words for a totally unexpected meaning? There is a fine line between creating intrigue and confusion.
Examples of titles structured as a question:
The following are examples of actual GRC titles framed as a question, a popular approach to provoke interest in the answer. In general, I find question-based titles to be effective, though it will be important to test it with your Fan Club audience(s) and make sure it resonates with them. In the case of the examples below, a couple of them have jargon (i.e., PFAS and polymers), so I would recommend massaging the language to reduce the jargon.
Examples of titles that strike the right balance:
The following examples of GRC talk titles strike the right balance and check my boxes for an effective title. They signal the general area of research that the audience will hear about. The titles are relatively short, ranging from 5–10 words, they have no or minimal jargon, and they are at least mildly provocative, which piques curiosity.
Princeton Vaughn, a PhD student in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University, shared the role his mentor played for him: ”He always thinks of the story first, which I think is really fantastic. He has taught me a lot about not only science communication to a broader audience, but even in conference talks and writing papers, and even just thinking about science generally, has taught me to always put the story first.”
A mentor is not required, but s/he/they could be valuable if you find a good one. The characteristics of a good GRC mentor are that s/he/they:
Ideas for mentors include past winners of the competition, staff at the university’s center for communicating science, advisors with whom you have a good connection, or even a professional not associated with your university. Remember, your mentor does not need to be your advisor or your principal investigator, and they do not need to be in your discipline.
Although the relationship will likely not be formal or long-lasting, you will want to be clear about your expectations. In other words, try not to recruit a mentor who won’t be aware that they are mentoring you. Be clear and officially ask them to serve as your mentor for this competition. It’s a huge compliment to be asked to mentor someone.
This is a great question. Audiences generally enjoy humor, so the obvious answer is “yes,” right?
Almost. It’s a little more complicated.
Historically, humor has been viewed as unprofessional in academic settings, but that mindset is shifting. If you want to try adding some light amusement to your talk, go for it. The good news is that through your rehearsals, your audience(s) will let you know if something you want to be funny doesn’t come across as such.
Things to keep in mind:
>>>A statistician is a person whose lifetime ambition is to be wrong 5% of the time.
>>>What did the limestone say to the geologist? Don’t take me for granite.
>>>How do you throw a party in space? You planet.
If you are not comfortable with humor, but you would like to be better at it, try one humorous moment in your GRC talk. You will have rehearsals to help you smooth it out and refine your delivery.
If you are not comfortable with humor at all, skip it.
Optional exercise: As you are watching other GRC talks, keep an eye out for how and when the speakers use humor.
Yes, absolutely!
Let me back up and clarify what it means to combine strong starts. In Week 4, we explored several options for strong starts—personal stories, quotes, data, etc. Any one of those choices, when delivered well, can be effective on its own. However, when you combine two or more, it creates a more impactful experience for the audience.
Imagine, for example, that you open with a personal story about how you were drawn to your research because of a family member who suffered with an illness. That’s powerful, but what if you combined that with a photo of that person? Or data about how prevalent that illness is? What if you followed your story with a call and response to the audience that asked, “How many of you have a loved one with an illness that affects their daily lives?” Actually, you could open with the question and then tell the story.
Those are the choices you get to make. Play with it. See what feels good to you. See how your practice audiences respond.
Yes!
Please see below for a completed worksheet for Iris Garcia-Pak’s analogy detailed in Week 2. Keep in mind that the worksheet is typically used for brainstorming new analogies rather than analysis of existing analogies. That said, this is a helpful exercise to identify potential disconnects in your analogy.
ADD LINK TO THIS WORKSHEET
Of all the topics I discussed with my interviewees, this response had the widest range. Everyone agreed it is important to practice, but opinions diverged regarding how much is too much.
As an example, one competitor practiced, practiced, and practiced for her first competition, but she did not win. For her second time, she relaxed and tried to approach it more as fun instead of a competition, and she ended up winning!
Trust yourself. Do what you need to do to feel prepared.
To put it bluntly, this is your talk, and you have the final say about what you include in the talk and what you do not. That said, if more than one person offers similar feedback, I would suggest considering how to modify your talk on that point.
When I was first teaching, one of my grad students was giving his final talk of the semester. His slide was a black and white photo of a distressed woman with her hand in front of her face. The word on her palm was STOP. The visual message was that the talk would be about violence against women. This is a powerful, but risky, strong start if you have not adequately considered your audience and tested your visuals.
Making the audience temporarily uncomfortable can be an effective strategy, but I would encourage you to quickly transition to the "answer" that will allow them to recover from the discomfort.
The best way to know if you are crossing a line is to leverage your Fan Club during your practice sessions. If you have a practice audience of four people, and three of them respond that it was too much, I would listen.
You may need a video of your GRC talk for three main reasons:
First, the video could be your official submission to the GRC. In these GRCs, the video is your final product, and you will not deliver your talk either in person or via live stream. At the time of publication, Princeton Research Day falls into this category.
The second reason you may need a video is that sometimes local GRCs require that participants submit a video of their talk to enter the in-person, live competition (e.g., Virginia Tech’s Nutshell Games). This could be motivated by a need to manage time and resources–several colleagues reviewing videos asynchronously is more efficient than reserving a venue for several hours, scheduling all the competitors’ talks at certain times, and arranging for judges.
The third reason videos might be required is to narrow the field of competitors down to a smaller set of finalists. GRCs are growing in popularity and reviewing videos makes it easier to deal with higher volumes of students interested in competing. In addition, pre-recorded videos allow the reviewers to watch the talk more than once, which is not an option in an in-person setting.
Since the advent of smart phones, filming and editing videos has transformed from being complex projects requiring special expertise and equipment to straightforward tasks that most of us can do by pressing a few buttons. That said, unless you are already trained as a video wizard, it will benefit you to spend some time learning some foundational best practices.
If you are required to prepare a video for your GRC, here is my advice:
1. Review all the rules and requirements for producing your GRC video from your competition organizer.
2. Watch several videos from your specific GRC. If you have been keeping up with your weekly exercises, you should be in good shape here. As you watch, make notes about what you like and do not like.
3. Leverage any recording and production resources on your campus.
4. Search YouTube and other online channels for specific “how to” guidance (e.g., how to edit a video or how to add special effects).
Once you have your script and slide ready, it is time well-spent to go visit the venue where you will be delivering your GRC talk. In most cases, it will be a larger room with a stage. Consider the following details:
If you do not have a lot of experience entering and exiting a stage, you will want to request some guidance and tips from the event organizers. Do they want you to enter from the left or the right? Will there be someone there to prompt you?
Will you need to wear a lapel microphone? If so, will there be someone who pins it on you? Or will you need to stand at a podium because the microphone is in a fixed position? Or, unlikely but possible, will there be no microphone to use, thereby requiring that you project your voice?
Will the venue have one or more large projection screens? Or none at all?
Each of these examples sounds small and manageable, right? But remember, public speaking to an audience of your peers is going to be somewhat nerve-wracking. Your goal is to minimize how much extra stress you need to manage on the day of the competition. After all the work you have put in, you don't want to get thrown off by performance logistics such as where to stand or whether the microphone is loud enough. Visit the venue in advance and ready yourself for potential surprises.
Most GRCs are limited to your presentation without a question-and-answer period. However, FameLab (mostly in Europe) does have a brief Q&A session after each talk.
Lucie Válová, organizer of FameLab for Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic offers the following advice: “It’s important to remain scientifically accurate without speculating. If the research hasn’t yet addressed the question or if it’s outside the scope of your study, it’s perfectly acceptable to say so in those terms."
My additional advice is to be prepared and have a brief answer for questions that are not directly connected to your research, such as “Why did you compete in FameLab?” (substitute any GRC name), “Who is your favorite scientist?”, or “What makes a person a great communicator?” Anticipate as many similar questions as you can.
Absolutely!